Sunday, May 18, 2014

My Zine Box Explodeth

I need to reorganize my zine box. I keep them in +Brave Halfling Publishing's, Peter Mullen's, purple worm box. I should have bought two or three of these when I had the chance. Damn my frugalness. Somewhere in the kitchen Whisk is laughing at that statement.

When I was organizing my zine box I noticed I had a few holes in my collection and have rectified most of those, but still need to print all the +Dyson Logos zines I purchased. Click on the pictures below to see who is guilty of creating what.

Here is group one. +Christian Walker has a couple of stacks that include his 13 issues of Loviatar and a collection of One Square Equals Five Feet, A Letter from Los Angles, and Shudde M'ell Confidential. There are so many these days I can't keep track of all the new issues and zines coming out. So much good stuff being created these days.

This a mix of old and new stuff. +Simon Forster out does himself. He sent me a hand written, hand drawn map adventure. It's fantastic. And it was a complete surprise. There is +Wayne Rossi's first issue of Dungeon Crawl. +Nathan Irving's Secrets 1st issue.

List of Cool Stuff

Alex Fotinakes is the creative mine behind the full-sized zine, Wizards, Mutants, Laser Pistols. He just released his 6th issue and I really dig this zine. It harkens (yes, I used harkens) back to what I remember of some of the few 70's and 80's zines I saw. Staples on the side, no fancy attempt at binding. Inside is barebones fun and content.

+Dak Ultimak's is the mastermind behind Crawl!, probably the best DCC supplement your going to find anywhere. I believe he has nine issues out now, plus a special issue called Hack! Firearms!. When he released these on PDF I think all his zines were in the top 15 spots for several weeks. Dak and I run the RPG Zine community on Google+. He and I are always up for trading zine for zine.

+Dylan Hartwell has created a series of incredible adventures. The one he's probably best known for is his first, The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz. And his most recent, The Big Book of Spiders, has inspired an adventure in my latest zine. All of Dylan's adventures are accompanied by Dylan's artwork. I really dig his creepy vibe he puts into each picture. I've had him illustrate my own adventure, Knowledge Illuminates. The best part is I met Dylan at a con this past year and I hope to do so this year. He's got a good energy when he GMs. It was very cool to see him GM one of his adventures I've been reading for the past couple of years.

+Pete Spahn is the man behind Brave the Labyrinth. There is currently three issues available on RPGNow, pay what you want. These are bad ass zines that feature the Labyrinth Lord system. He features very cool map covers for each issue. A ton of people contribute to Brave the Labyrinth. Lots of interesting ideas to bring into your OSR game. And it's not your average sized zine. Since it is sold through PDF the page counts range from 24 to 50+. If your going to print this puppy out, get a big stapler.

+matt jackson famous mini game, Edge of Space. Matt was very generous and sent me a copy. I know he is often asked about printing more. This is a very cool space game that can get set up in a few minutes. And Matt wrote the introduction adventure, Incident at Intrepid Station. This is one of those product you need to own in print. It is just that good.

Johnathan Walton and his friends have created a series of three booklets that are supplements for the Dungeon World system. Including the Dark Heart of the Dreamer. These three booklets and the core book of Dungeon World was gifted to me by +Tim Knight. I've only leafed through these so far. I need to sit down and give it a good read, but I think this is one I want to learn by playing. I need to find a con and get in a game or two. Or at least make it on time for the game...missed it at the last con.

+john yorio recently released his 2nd issue of 6 Iron Spikes & Small Hammer. This is what old school zines are about. This is another one of those old school zines that just hits all the right notes and just a pleasure to read. John is very passionate about his zine and he should be, it is excellent.

+Johnathan Bingham created Delve!. And here you though he was just another hot elf chick that liked pie. Johnathan is one of the OSR's stable of top tier artists. He illustrates Delve! with provocative illustration to go along with his gonzo adventure. As of now he only has the single issue and I believe he's mentioned he has the second issue on its way, but when you're moving your family across half the world his attention is divided. Johnathan has been a huge help with artwork for the Manor and he and his wife, Daisy, completed an incredible cover for my upcoming Manor Compilation.

+Christian Walker and all his zines and one-page letters and I don't even have half of them. The guy is the reason why I put out The Manor. While most of his stuff you can no longer get, if you ever get a chance grab a copy do so and save it.

+Eldrad Wolfsbane created Back to the Dungeon zine that features the Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion. He's even created his own retro clone called, Back to the Dungeon RPG. Right now there are five issues out for you to download. Go ahead and do it now and thank me when you come back. I think you'll get a fantastic picture of what it looks like behind his GM screen. This is a simple, no nonsense zine that is full of useful stuff.

+Greg Gorgonmilk takes the lead for Underworld Lore. He's got three big, fat issues done and the fourth issue seems to be well on its way. I say fat because the last issue was 80 pages long! Holy crapping Canadians Batman, that's a big one. And he manages to sneak in half naked pictures of Red Sonja. Again, this is one of those old school zines that just kicks ass. It's a got a ton of great info and includes a few Petty Gods. The last issue was dedicated to Hyboria. And it's free to download.

+Simon Forster is fast becoming known as an elite map maker. His maps and style just keeps getting better and he just produces fantastic stuff all the time. Add him to your Google+ circles because he shares his maps all the time and I want to steal them all. Simon sent me his adventure Faces of Evil, its hand written and the maps hand drawn. It's fricking awesome. It was an unexpected and much appreciated surprise.

+Wayne Rossi, creator of Dungeon Crawl, is on his 3rd issue. He gets help from some top-notched contributors like +David Przybyla, +Johua De Santo and +Dyson Logos just to name a few. There are ton more. So when you have that many creative people contributing to one thing, you know its going to be fantastic. Dungeon Crawl has come a long way from its three stapled page first issue. Wayne does it right and adds another gaming zine that should be on your list of must-gets.

+Nathan Irving recently released Secrets #1. Nathan was also the winner of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day with his Illusionist class. He said this was his first issue, but it looks like he's been doing this for a while. This one has new spells, old spells with a twist, a big batch of magic items, monsters and a cool addition, a unique magic item for each issue on the back cover. I'm really glad Nathan got into making zines. I'm already looking forward to issue #2.

+Tim Callahan has developed this DCC zine, Crawljammer, that has more of a outer space slant. He's just released his second issue. I thought I had the first issue, but can't seem to find it. This is why I needed to reorganize my zines. Love the layout and look of this zine. I've been wanting to get into something more modern or sci-fi lately and this issue has pushed me more in that direction.

+B. Portly has created his own RPG that is set in the 20s/30s called Detective & Daredevils. He uses +trey causey's Weird Adventures for the setting. I've had the fortune of gaming the Lester (Mr. Portly) in Trey's game and also had him run me through one of his games using his system. You can tell he loves his nior and gaming. It was a ton of fun. Plus, he is another one of those art/writer guys who makes us look like slackers. He's got a ton of cool ideas for running a game with rainy night outside, while you sit in a smoke-filled room with an opened bottle of whiskey on your desk when a long-legged dame walks in with a purse full of cash asking for help.

This eneded up being a more involved post than I imagined. And it's not even a complete list. I know I have +Dyson Logos zines, Dyson's Dodecahedron. I know I printed them out. If you want a more comprhensive list of zines you'll find it at Rended Press. Old Bookface likes to keep tabs on all of us. Watch out for him.